Zach Tesch

Violin, viola, composition

Zach Tesch is a St. Louis-based composer and violinist whose works have been premiered by the PHACE Ensemble, Chamber Project St. Louis, FUSE Quartet, and the Webster University New Music Ensemble. His works for dance have premiered alongside choreography performed by students from the Webster University and University of Missouri–Kansas City Departments of Dance. As a performer, Mr. Tesch has been trained in both classical and experimental music and has studies several non-classical styles, especially in fiddle music.

Zach holds a Master of Music degree in composition from the University of Missouri–Kansas City, where he studied under Chen Yi, Yotam Haber, and Paul Rudy. He also holds a Bachelor of Music degree in composition from Webster University, where he received the Peggy Fossett Endowed Scholarship for Music, the Buder Foundation Scholarship, and the Allen Carl Larson Endowed Scholarship for Instrumental Studies. He also served as the assistant concertmaster of the Webster University Orchestra, and he performed with the Webster University New Music Ensemble. His composition instructors have included David Werfelmann, Kim Portnoy, and Dirk D’Ase, and his violin instructors have included Heidi Harris, Matt Pickart, and, most recently, Joseph Genualdi. He has also studied conducting with Paul Davis.

In 2020, he was awarded a grant to aid in the composition of a new piece, In the End, All Was Ash, a response to the challenges placed on live performance by the COVID-19 pandemic.  In 2023, Zach was invited to participate in the Vienna Summer Music Festival and the ICEBERG Institute in Vienna, Austria. At these festivals, his works Landscape No. 3 and Adrift received world premieres, and his work Twitch, for solo violin, was read by Irvine Arditti.

Mr. Tesch’s teaching focuses on supplying students with the confidence and freedom to make their own artistic decisions while simultaneously teaching the fundamentals of the craft. Students will be encouraged to explore specific areas of interest to them and to develop their own musical voice.